Rescue images

The rescue image is pretty easy to use, nothing to install, login as admin, google the problem and run whatever commands are required. Quite often the “problem” is just to run fsck when loss of power for example resulted in unclean umount.

The live image typically does not understand anything but the most recent OS version, or is confused by updates on top of the initial install, so it’s a short trip to full reinstall and complete reconfiguration or even data loss. Plus it requires a bootable media and access to ports where to plug this bootable media (which is not quick or easy for anything which is not a laptop designed to be moved).